


Scars

by CaveAdministration



Series: Sakura Week 2018 [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: much shorter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:56:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14158257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaveAdministration/pseuds/CaveAdministration
Summary: Sakura Week Prompts: Day 3 - From a Bud to a Blossom





	Scars

Sakura could count all her scars. She could name them; remember when and who and where. And she could remember how. 

When she was three, Sakura sliced her hand on a knife. The pain was excruciating and she can still see the stitches. 

While in the academy, Sakura suffered many cuts and bruises, but nothing compared to when a stick hidden beneath leaves stabbed her arm as she fell or a mishandled kunai as it pierced her thigh. 

When she became a genin, her scars were no longer from her own hands, but were from men and women who she had no chance of beating, of surviving against if it weren't for her team. 

The mission to Wave gave her cuts up her arms from Gato’s shinobi and mercenaries. She wasn't hurt nearly as bad as Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi, but the scars were still there nonetheless.

From the Forest of Death, innumerable scratches covered her from Orochimaru throwing her around like a rag-doll. The marks of the Sound-nins’ shuriken slicing up her skin. The scar lining the back of her neck as she cut off her hair was something she couldn't see, but she could trace it everyday. 

The final tournament and the fight against Gaara gave her burns from the sand, leaving her skin raw and bleeding. The marks never went away.

When her training with Tsunade began, the scars were once again self-inflicted. Her hands covered with cuts and calluses from breaking the Earth. Fire and lighting jutsu gone wrong peppered her with burns and twisted flesh. A missed block when practicing kenjutsu meant another imperfection decorating her skin. She finally mastered medical jutsu, but while she could heal the damage, Sakura couldn't bring herself to heal her appearance. The scars reminded her of her mistakes, her opponents, and her need to improve.

Her Chunin Exams in Suna left Sakura with more from the sand and her competition. She was promoted, but the scars reminded her she was not yet strong enough.

After Sakura turned fifteen, the world went to war and she was gifted with the worst scars in her life: Sasori’s blade impaling her stomach in the cave, the blow from Naruto as he succumbed to the Kyuubi on Tenchi Bridge, and the rampaging Three-Tails among more. In the final battle, Sakura was stabbed by Madara’s rod and almost killed by Kaguya’s attacks. But she survived, and her scars are there to remind her of the war. 

She has mental scars too. Of genjutsus that crippled her mind, the terror of facing an unbeatable foe, the death that comes with war. But while she still remembers them and why they're there, they slowly heal over time.

As the shinobi return home to their villages, tired but victorious, Sakura realises that while at first her scars were a symbol of her weaknesses, they are now symbols of her protection of others, her strength, her growth.

She  _ has _ grown, more powerful and dangerous, and her scars are there to prove it.


End file.
